The underbutt

July 18, 2013

I saw a piece in a newspaper the other day about the propensity, particularly in this hot weather, for people, particularly women, to wear shorts so short that the lower curves of the buttocks are out on display, getting some fresh air. The new coinage for the flesh so displayed is the underbutt. By chance, at the time I was reading Tom Wolfe’s novel Back to Blood, and he too refers to this fashion (it’s big in Miami) but he calls it buttock decollétage. I must say I prefer Tom Wolfe’s way of putting it; but I think that underbutt is the phrase more likely to be generally adopted.

PS My review of Back to Blood appears in the Independent on Sunday on 28th July.